


Across the Street and Two Blocks Down

by rsadelle



Category: Bandom, Cobra Starship
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-14
Updated: 2009-09-14
Packaged: 2017-10-25 21:08:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/274810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe and Alex are business rivals, until they're not. AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across the Street and Two Blocks Down

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for an [](http://anon-lovefest.livejournal.com/profile)[**anon_lovefest**](http://anon-lovefest.livejournal.com/) [prompt](http://community.livejournal.com/anon_lovefest/31188.html?thread=2503124#t2503124). Possibly the most fun thing I have ever written.

It starts out as an accident really. Gabe's actually up before noon on a Sunday - well, more like still up, but who's counting? - and he wanders down from his apartment above the club to see if he can find something to eat. He's two blocks down, making his usual sneer at This Is Ivy League - seriously, how is that guy so pretentious? - when one of the waiters catches his eye. Gabe knows the moment Nate spots him because he looks so guilty.

Gabe's too shocked - Nate was the first and truest believer in Gabe's nightclub dream - to do anything other than stare.

Nate finishes taking an order from a couple sitting out on the patio area in the front of the place, and then he comes out onto the sidewalk. "Gabe," he says, "I can explain." He's dressed super nice, and he's even taken out his nose ring.

Gabe snaps out of it and holds up a hand. "I don't even want to hear it." He turns around and goes back home without stopping for food.

***

Cobra Starship's closed on Sundays, so Gabe doesn't see Nate again until he shows up for his shift on Monday.

Nate hovers just inside the doorway to Gabe's office and won't look at him. "Am I fired?"

"What the fuck?" Gabe asks. "Why are you even working for that guy?"

Nate crosses his arms over his chest and hunches in a little. "Casey moved out. I'm looking for a new roommate, but I have to cover rent myself until I find one, and I already work full-time here, and Suarez said I could pick up a couple of shifts at his place."

"Shit, Nate." Gabe sighs and scrubs his hands over his eyes. "You're not fired. Get out of my office and get to work."

***

When the club closes, Gabe leaves Vicky-T in charge of cleanup and lockup - he'll check on his way home anyway - and heads down the street. Ivy League's empty, and he heads around the back to the kitchen door.

"What'd you forget this time?" Suarez calls out when Gabe comes in, and then he looks up. "Saporta," he says evenly.

"Suarez." Gabe leans against one of the counters. "Like it's not bad enough when you steal my clientele, now you're stealing my employees?"

Suarez has the gall to roll his eyes. "I'm not stealing anyone, and I needed the help."

"Like hell you did." Gabe stalks toward him. "I live down the street. I know you've got all the staff you need."

Most people would back down with Gabe advancing on them, but not Suarez.

"It ever occur to you I was just trying to help the kid out?"

It hasn't.

"Stop stealing my staff." Gabe holds himself up straight so he can loom over Suarez. Sadly, Suarez is not impressed. He just gets this little smile on his face and cocks his head.

"You have met Ryland, right? I think he's actually taller than you."

"Shut up, Suarez."

Suarez shakes his head a little and reaches out and actually _kisses_ Gabe. It's rough, and Suarez bites his lip, and Gabe kisses back.

Gabe's not entirely sure how it happens, but he ends up bent over a counter with his pants around his ankles and Suarez thrusting into him in a surprisingly steady rhythm.

Gabe swears at him the whole time, and comes all over Suarez's work surface.

He's careful not to let Suarez see his hands shaking as he gets his pants back on and leaves.

***

The second time, Suarez shows up at Gabe's club before it opens and fucks him over the desk in his office.

"Thanks for not firing Nate," Suarez says before he leaves.

Gabe's too well-fucked to bother bitching at him. "I'd never fire Nate. Besides Adam's been picking up extra shifts here for years."

Suarez snorts. "I knew he had another job he wasn't telling me about."

***

The third time, Suarez catches him just as he's locking up the club to go upstairs, and Gabe's drunk enough that he lets Suarez come up and fuck him in his own bed.

He wakes up in the morning to something that smells _amazing_. He stumbles out of his bedroom to find Suarez cooking in his kitchen.

"I didn't know I had any food in here."

"You didn't." Suarez flashes him a smile. "I walked down to the restaurant."

Gabe frowns at him. "I'm a vegan."

Suarez's smile disappears and he yanks a pan off the stove. "I know that." He snaps the stove off. "Have you ever even looked at our menu?"

"No," Gabe admits.

"You might try it sometime. There's no animal products in this." Suarez stalks out and leaves Gabe with an amazing tofu scramble and a handful of dirty dishes.

A couple of hours later, Gabe opens his laptop, pulls up This Is Ivy League's website, and reads through their menu.

***

The next Wednesday, Gabe heads over to Ivy League when he's pretty sure it'll be clearing out. The front is closed and dark, so he goes around to the back and lets himself into the kitchen. He watches the staff bustle around for a couple of minutes before Suarez notices him.

Suarez tells his staff to go home, that he'll finish closing up, and he does it in Spanish, the soft sounds of Gabe's childhood in the upscale kitchen of the most pretentious place in the neighborhood.

"I didn't know you spoke Spanish," Gabe says when they're alone.

"I'm a Suarez and a chef," Suarez says. "Comes with the territory."

Gabe settles uneasily against a counter. "I read your menu."

Suarez actually laughs. "Hungry?"

Gabe consults with his stomach. "Yeah."

Gabe's practically mesmerized by the way Suarez chops vegetables without even looking at them. He ends up with something that looks and smells wonderful that he divides out onto two plates.

"Come on," Suarez says, and Gabe follows him out to the front of the house. Suarez doesn't bother to turn on the lights. Instead he grabs a lighter from the wait station and lights the candle in the middle of the table. He takes the lighter back and brings out a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses.

Suarez tells Gabe about going to culinary school, finding his high school best friend again, and opening a restaurant. Gabe tells him about dropping out of college, being in a band, and opening Cobra Starship. Gabe also tells him how amazing his food is, and it's enough for Suarez to go back to the kitchen and plate a couple of slices of vegan cheesecake with raspberry sauce drizzled artfully across the giant plates he serves them on.

Gabe helps Suarez carry their dirty dishes and empty wine bottle back to the kitchen, and that's when his phone buzzes. The text is from Vicky-T and it says, _get ur ass back here_.

"Fuck," he swears, because Vicky-T can handle pretty much anything on her own. If she says he needs to be there, then he needs to be there. "I've gotta go. Thanks for dinner."

"You're welcome." And then as Gabe's on his way out, Suarez says, "Saporta," and Gabe turns back, and Suarez pulls him in for a kiss that leaves him breathless and hard and wishing he didn't have to go.

***

Gabe's behind the bar conversing with customers - "Getting in my fucking way," Vicky-T says, but he's the fucking owner and he can hang out behind the bar whenever he wants - and some guy getting a beer says, "This place is awesome."

Gabe grins. "That's what we're here for."

"I kind of didn't believe it when the chef at This Is Ivy League told me to check it out," the guy says.

***

Vicky-T kicks his ankle while he's trying to bring stock up from the basement. "If you're not mad at Nate anymore, you need to tell him that."

When Nate comes in for his shift, Gabe throws an arm around his shoulder. "How's it going?"

Nate looks startled, which means Gabe really has been ignoring him. "Good," he says. "I might've found a new roommate."

Gabe squeezes his shoulders. "If it doesn't work out, you know you can always have the basement back. We don't really need that big a storage space."

Nate leans into him. "Thanks, but I think I'll be okay with a few shifts at Suarez's until I can get someone else moved in."

"Okay, if you're sure." Gabe turns to Nate and wraps him up in a real hug. "Let me know if you need anything."

Nate hugs back. "Thanks."

***

Gabe's actually working the bar because it's early and Vicky-T had a hair appointment that ran late, and there's a girl moping into her Cosmo and not much else going on.

Gabe leans on the bar in front of the girl. "Wanna tell me all about it?"

She sighs. "My boyfriend and I had a _huge_ fight because he wants to take me out someplace fancy for our anniversary, but he eats meat and I'm a vegan, and fancy places never have good vegan food." She gulps down the rest of her Cosmo.

"That's an easy one." Gabe starts mixing her a new drink. "There's a place down the street, This Is Ivy League, they have great vegan food and they serve meat." He puts the drink down in front of her. "And fancy enough for an anniversary dinner." He waves away her attempt to pay for the drink. "On the house."

***

Sleeping with Suarez, which Gabe keeps doing despite his better judgment, is a mixed bag. On the one hand, he's eating better than he ever has before and the sex is always amazing, even when they're both so drunk it shouldn't be. On the other hand, he can't get away with shit because Suarez understands everything he says. They end up having whole conversations that are half in English and half in Spanish, and even a few that are all Spanish.

***

Gabe's coming down Suarez's throat when he realizes it's the third morning in a row that Suarez has still been there when he woke up.

He does the math while Suarez straddles him and jerks himself off onto Gabe's chest: fifty-three days since he found Nate working at Ivy League.

An hour later, when he's bent over his new, sturdier dining room table, he gasps out, "Are we dating?"

"Yes we're fucking dating," Suarez says, punctuating it with thrusts that hit against Gabe's prostate and gripping Gabe's hips hard enough to layer new bruises over the older ones he's already left there.

Gabe comes all over the table. It's easier to clean than the old one, too.

"And if you do this with anyone else, I'll take that knife you like watching me use and cut your balls off." Alex's voice goes a little shaky at the end, when he's coming, but Gabe gets the idea.


End file.
